Self-Transcendence as a Buffer Against COVID-19 Suffering: The Development and Validation of the Self-Transcendence Measure-B.

The age of COVID-19 calls for a different approach toward global well-being and flourishing through the transcendence suffering as advocated by existential positive psychology. In the present study, we primarily explained what self-transcendence is and why it represents the most promising path for human beings to flourish through the transformation of suffering in a difficult and uncertain world. After reviewing the literature on self-transcendence experiences, we concluded that the model of self-transcendence presented by Frankl is able to integrate both of the characteristics associated with self-transcendence. Afterward, we discussed how the self-transcendence paradigm proposed by Wong, an extension of the model by Frankl, may help awaken our innate capacity for connections with the true self, with others, and with God or something larger than oneself. We presented self-transcendence as a less-traveled but more promising route to achieve personal growth and mental health in troubled times. Finally, we presented the history of the development and psychometrics of the Self-Transcendence Measure-Brief (STM-B) and reported the empirical evidence that self-transcendence served as a buffer against COVID-19 suffering. The presented data in the current study suggested that the best way to overcome pandemic suffering and mental health crises is to cultivate self-transcendence.

Emotional Congruence with Children: Are Implicit and Explicit Child-Like Self-Concept and Attitude Toward Children Associated with Sexual Offending Against Children?

Some men convicted of sexual offences against children express an exaggerated affiliation with childhood, ascribe child-like characteristics to themselves, experience strong non-sexual liking of children, and hold positive views of children and childhood. These features are generally called emotional congruence with children. The present study examined child-like self-concept, which is an association of self with children and child-like characteristics, attitude toward children, and general emotional congruence with children as correlates of sexual offending against children and pedophilia. Male participants (18 sexual offenders against unrelated children; 7 incest offenders; 22 non-sexual offenders; 54 students) completed newly developed implicit and explicit measures of child-like self-concept and attitude toward children, as well as more established self-report measures of emotional congruence with children. Assessments of pedophilic interest and sexual recidivism risk were obtained from official file information. Sexual offenders against unrelated children reported higher levels of implicit child-like self-concept and self-reported emotional congruence with children when compared to the other three groups. Implicit child-like self-concept showed a small correlation with emotional congruence measures, whereas implicit attitude toward children was moderately correlated with the emotional congruence measures. Implicit child-like self-concept, implicit attitude toward children, and the emotional congruence measures were associated with greater pedophilic interest and sexual recidivism risk. The present findings provide a nuanced understanding of the emotional congruence with children construct and have implications for theory, research, and treatment of sexual offenders against children.

Further investigation of findings reported for the Minnesota sex offender screening tool-revised.

Among a number of widely used risk assessment instruments with adult sexual offenders, the Minnesota Sex Offender Screening Tool-Revised (MnSOST-R) has been subject to relatively few evaluation studies. Only two independent research groups have published replication studies in the peer-reviewed literature with data not provided by the MnSOST-R's developers, and the results regarding the accuracy of predicting sexual recidivism have been mixed. In this article, important differences between the Barbaree et al. and Langton et al. studies are presented. Analyses reported for the various subsets comprising these two samples indicate that coding discrepancies in the Barbaree et al. study account for the different findings, with a moderate level of predictive accuracy using the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve ultimately found for the MnSOST-R in both data sets.

Different actuarial risk measures produce different risk rankings for sexual offenders.

Percentile ranks were computed for N=262 sex offenders using each of 5 actuarial risk instruments commonly used with adult sex offenders (RRASOR, Static-99, VRAG, SORAG, and MnSOST-R). Mean differences between percentile ranks obtained by different actuarial measures were found to vary inversely with the correlation between the actuarial scores. Following studies of factor analyses of actuarial items, we argue that the discrepancies among actuarial instruments can be substantially accounted for by the way in which the factor Antisocial Behavior and various factors reflecting sexual deviance are represented among the items contained in each instrument. In the discussion, we provide guidance to clinicians in resolving discrepancies between instruments and we discuss implications for future developments in sex offender risk assessment.

The factor structure of static actuarial items: its relation to prediction.

Principal components analysis was conducted on items contained in actuarial instruments used with adult sex offenders, including: the Rapid Assessment of Sex Offender Risk for Recidivism (RASORR), the Static-99, the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG), the Sex Offender Risk Appraisal Guide (SORAG), and the Minnesota Sex Offender Screening Tool-Revised (MnSOST-R). In a data set that included child molesters and rapists (N = 311), six interpretable components were identified: Antisocial Behavior, Child Sexual Abuse, Persistence, Detached Predatory Behavior, Young and Single, and Male Victim(s). The RRASOR was highly correlated with Persistence, and the VRAG and SORAG were highly correlated with Antisocial Behavior. Antisocial Behavior was a significant predictor of violent recidivism, while Persistence and Child Sexual Abuse were significant predictors of sexual recidivism.

Sex offenders' response to treatment and its association with recidivism as a function of psychopathy.

This study examined the relationship between recidivism and ratings of response to specialized cognitive behavioral treatment conducted in a prison setting among 418 sex offenders released to the community for an average follow-up period of over 5 years. As well as testing for a main effect for treatment ratings, the potential role of psychopathy assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist--Revised (PCL-R) as a moderator of response to treatment was investigated. Ratings of response to treatment failed to predict either serious (violent including sexual) or sexual recidivism. For the more inclusive outcome of serious recidivism, there was no significant interaction between psychopathy and treatment ratings; however, the ubiquitous effect of psychopathy on recidivism was found to be significant. For sexual recidivism, psychopathy was not significant as a main effect, but a significant interaction between psychopathy and treatment ratings was found. Among sex offenders with PCL-R scores of 25 or higher, those with ratings reflecting a more negative response to treatment recidivated sexually at a faster rate than others. This interaction effect was not significant when treatment noncompleters were removed from the data set. The results were discussed in terms of the methodology involved in the assessment of response to treatment among sex offenders.